Clear on Top

The Washington crowd tells us that upper income earners must pay their fair share of taxes.  In 2008, the top 1% of tax payers made 20% of all adjusted gross income (AGI) in the United States yet they paid 38% of all federal income taxes.

In 2009, the top 1% of tax payers made 16.9% of AGI and paid 36.7% of all income taxes paid.  I am not real sure what a liberal’s, progressives’, or socialists’ (or whatever the politically correct name is today) definition of fair is.  It would seem to me that if you make 16.9% of the income that you should pay 16.9% of the taxes.

Under the current tax structure, the top 1% earners are paying 117% more in taxes than their income would justify.   Maybe I am missing something here, but what is fair about that?  Maybe this is like defining “is”.

So you say, “That doesn’t bother me.  I am not in the top 1%.”  Well, try this on.  If you made $154,643 you qualified in the top 5%.  This group accounted for 31.7% of the AGI and paid 58.7% of all income taxes collected.  Not there yet.  How about making $112,124?  This qualifies you for the top 10% of tax payers.  Your group earns 43% of the United States’ adjusted gross income and has the honor of paying 70.5% of all taxes.  As Herman Cain so aptly said, “How is that working out for you?

What’s the REAL solution?  It’s GOOD when the “rich” keep the money that THEY made.  Why?  Because the rich invest in things that make society better.  Things that provide jobs, products, services that everyone benefits from.